- Saturday, 11 July 2009
- INQ Mobile
- RSS
Loyal employee that [Paul] Engel was... - Tim Jackson, Inside Intel page 130
Ultra HDTV cometh
REMEMBER IBM'S T221 uber monitor some five years ago, with its 3840x2400, a.k.a QWUXGA, resolution? Its nine Mpixels are unmatched to this day, despite Nvidia and others' efforts to promote the super resolution again as XHD2 "director's cut" gamers' nirvana. Well, the killer app has arrived - at least at the demonstration stage. Call it, umm, Ultra HD TV.
During the last week's CMMA 2008 show in Singapore, we saw the first Ultra HD content on the NHK (National Japanese television) booth.
The 42-plus inch monitors had 3840x2160 resolution, exactly quadruple that of standard 1080i/p HD TV, and the accompanying surround sound was, guess what, 22.2 ! How's that compared to the old stereophonics?
The 16:10 screen ratio takes care of both movies and actual two-page side-by-side computer use - which somehow, probably, should have usage priority compared to the movies on a PC.
The UHD TV content, recorded natively by a 4K videocam at 60Hz progressive and matched pixel-for-pixel on the monitor, did look noticeably sharper than current HD. On a recording of a football match, you could discern many faces on a 50,000+ stadium film, and a midtown Manhattan video let us see individual Empire State Building windows from a shot taken some two miles away. While the jump doesn't look as dramatic as the SD to HD move, it still drew gasps from the audience observing it.
The final touch was, well, hidden in a neighbouring mini theatre: A 32 Mpix super duper hyper UHD TV 300-inch projection setup with 7680x4320 resolution, and upscaled 4K video content to show the best the eye can manage. Only IMAX movies came anywhere close to this - too bad no one was allowed to flip open a camera inside...
We'd be happy just to see the "standard" 2160p UHD out sometime soon, to justify those new nine-Mpix large PC monitors too. Sounds too far fetched? Not really, our Japanese friends have enjoyed one or another form of HDTV for nearly a decade now, it's time for them to move to the next step while we're still trying to intro the current 1080 HDTV properly. µ
Share this:
Business Intelligence Software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Enterprise Accounting Software
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Systems Management
I'll need more eyes.
Evolution, here eye come.
This system was at NAB (Los Vegas, USA) 1.5 years ago.
The IBM T221 was released in 2001 so that makes it ~ 7 years old. It is good to hear about the 42" monitor being "available". Had heard about it before but it disappeared of the map and only the 56" monitor (Westinhouse) was being mentioned. The 42" would make for a nice desktop monitor at this resolution. Most ATI cards have dual dual-link DVI for years now. They can push the pixels needed to use this monitor.


awwwww c'mon, more £££££s for something that most peeps cant tell the difference anyway, most movies are still made at 25fps (pedants correct me plz)

HDTV is nice in theory, but and its a big but, if the content of a movie/program is carp, then even if its in HDTV, UHDTV, uber HDTV, ad infinitum, its still CARP. its content they should be looking at !!!

*cough, anybody notice ive got me twisty head on today :O)
This is less Monitor, More College Theatre projector.

First install it, then show Fantastic WEED Movies, w/real weed. Add some porn for dynamic Fest & who cares resolution: 25 feet of FUN.

Maybe some Illyiad stuff would be better.
drashek
3840x2160 resolution is 16:9, not 16:10

Put a ultra-HD-Cam outside and you can use the OLED instead of a windows to see the reality on high resolution ;-)
This reminds me of the time decades ago when the missus aquired a 8" reflector astronomical telescope. I've never been much for looking at stars ("Oh look! A dot!") but it works just fine for more terrestial persuits. Like UHDTV you can see individual stiches on neighbors' curtains a couple of streets away, all sorts of detail. Fascinating stuff. Except for this business of 'field of view'. Give us (humans) a static picture of infinite detail and we'll study it in infinite detail. Scan around a bit and the information we're able to absorb plummets. Its the eyeball, you see -- its not that HD.

So I'll get a super-HD-and-then-some display when I can get an OLED the size of the wall of my living room. Then I can use it like a window.
That pixel resolution ought to keep Charlie D in material for video card rants for some time to come. 

Octo-SLI or octo-Crossfire required? 

Woohoo!
Yes, you're right. Clearly, current movie producers are incapable of creating films distinguishable in the theater from straight NTSC/PAL television.

Therefore, I dismiss your post as CARP. Or maybe TROUT. Actually, I've never really been a seafood guy at all, come to think of it...
Though it would be great for my epeen, nobody actually needs that high of a resolution. To correct a previous post, films are filmed at 24Hz (FPS), which is why most TVs are being made with a 120Hz refresh rate. 120Hz is divisible by 24, thus smoother image transitions are produced whereas 60Hz is not.
All this hoopla over nothing. I have a CRT widescreen since 2005 and I'm quite happy with it - won't be changing it before it breaks. It's not HD, but the image is quite nice (confirmed by everyone who has seen it working).
Oh well, nice to know that some fools are paying for my TV replacement of 2017.
As far as consumer television sets and broadcasts, 4320p (7680x4320) 
Ultra High Definition Video / Ultra HDTV is as far off as HDTV was in the 1970s when HDTV was experimental.